Dragon Lord
by the-samurais-sword
Summary: [ONESHOT] My sequel to Heir Apparent, by Vivian Vande Velde. Dakota Wang has gone to the Rasmussem Gaming Center Virtual Reality Arcade with a gift certificate from his


**A/N: **

My sequel to Heir Apparent, by Vivian Vande Velde. DO I OWN HEIR APPARENT? **APPARENTLY** NOT! Heh. Anyway, this is fun! Hehe…

**SUMMARY:  
**Dakota Wang has gone to the Rasmussem Gaming Center Virtual Reality Arcade with a gift certificate from his best friend. Of the games the certificate allows him to use, he chooses Dragon Lord. But what happens when Dakota is fully immersed into the game, and a customer of the gaming center accidentally trips on a wire leading into Dakota ís game? Reconnecting the wire can result in death.

**A/N:   
**Hope you enjoy! R&R This is my first completed story! Also, I will keep updating this story (that's why it doesn't say completed) so that I can put more and more details and tasks!

Oh, and by the way, please give me some ideas for tasks! The author doesn't succeed without the audience! Happy reading!

**Dragon Lord**

My sixteenth birthday started out with a fight with my computer. Of course, I could have just turned if off right then and there, but my love for my computer was just too great.

I couldn't turn it off.

Wait, let me back up. I was at my father's place this weekend of June 15th. My parents are divorced, and it was my father's turn to have me this weekend. Of course… I would prefer it if my parents got back together again.  
"Happy birthday, Dakota Wang," droned my computer in a bored monotone.  
"Thanks Jeremy," I told my computer.  
"Jerm," it said.  
"No, I am calling you Jeremy, not Jerm. Jerm sounds like _Germ_," I wrinkled my nose.  
By the way, I programmed an A.I. into my computer, so that's why it's talking to me and responding. And apparently I made a mistake by naming it Jeremy.  
"Email," I commanded. I wanted to see if I got anything from my friends.

"Call me Jerm," droned my computer again.  
"Email, _Jeremy_," I said, fury starting to bottle up inside me.

"Call me Jerm."

"Your. Name. Is. Jeremy. _Email._"

I was practically screaming at the computer now.

"I want to see my email!"

"Call me Jerm."

"No, no, no! _Why_ does my birthday have to start out like this?"

"Oh yes, Dakota. Happy birthday. Would you like to check your email? Of course, you must call me Jerm first."

I gave up.

I guess I was acting childish, but a 16th birthday is supposed to be the best you can get, right? Now I can get my drivers license, and other privileges would now be open to me.

When I went downstairs, my father had attempted (I guess, to be polite) to decorated the kitchen with blue and yellow, my two favorite colors. He quickly gave me a hug and started to sing the Happy Birthday! song, all the while taking out cupcakes from the nearby supermarket. He was slightly out of tune, but it was nevertheless special.

"Here you go," he said, taking something out from a drawer. "A special present for a special 16 year old."

He handed me a small envelope. I ripped it open quickly, anxious to see what the 'special present' was.

It was a white piece of paper.

Well, it was a white piece of paper with writing on it.

**_$50 to Rasmussem Gaming Center Virtual Reality Arcade_**

_**Take 200 tokens and dive into virtual reality at Rasmussem's!**_

Wow.

The Rasmussem Gaming Center was the one that my classmate, Giannine Bellisario got caught in a glitch in a few years ago. Well actually, it wasn't a glitch. The mob outside the gaming center that was against youth gaming centers and fictional games wrecked the machinery that almost made her brain become damaged. Oh well. I liked the gaming center, and this was just perfect timing; they had just released a few new games!

"Thank you," I said, finally managing out a few words.

"No problem, buddy," my father ruffled my long, spiky, black hair.

His next words made me speechless again.  
"Let's go to the Gaming Center tomorrow."

I walked into the lobby of the Rasmussem Gaming Center the next day with my father. I was dressed in a green tee shirt and comfy jeans. My father dressed similarly and stopped me before I could talk to the receptionist.  
"Guess I'll leave you here, eh Ko?' he asked.

"Sure," I replied grinning. This was so exciting! "I'll call you on my cell when I'm done."

He patted me on the shoulder, smiled, and left.  
I walked to the counter and handed one of the teenagers there my gift certificate. As she entered the certificate information onto the computer, I took a good long look at her, drawing in all of my surroundings.

The lobby looked very comfortable, just right for teenagers' surroundings. It had bright colored pillows in multiple couches, and a little dragon (Giannine told me about this little guy) sat, perched on the receptionist's counter and paced back and forth every few minutes. It tried to bite my finger as I drummed the counter.

Behind the receptionist's counter, I could see about a dozen or so people hooked up to machines with their eyes closed. If somebody walked in and didn't know this was a gaming center, there probably would be some big problem going on.  
"Let's hook you up to one of the machines," she said. She marched me to one of the middle machines and I sat on a dentist chair. Well, it looked like a dentist chair.

After hooking about 50 places of my body up to the machine and giving me a little intro about it, she said, "Close your eyes."

I did. Suddenly a list of games started to come into focus.

"Now take this list of games and tell me which one you want. The summaries are on the right of them."

I took a close look at them and took five, maybe ten minutes trying to decide.

"Dragon Lord," I said. It was the only one that looked far more appealing to me than the others, and I certainly didn't want to play Heir Apparent, now that Giannine had already told me all about it. I wanted something new.

"Are you sure?'

"Yes."

"Okay. In a minute, your mind will be fixed into the machine. The background information will be stored in your brain, and you will reach a settings page to set your character. Good luck on your game. Oh, and every time you die, you are sent back to the beginning. You have two hours."

A dull light flashed across the screen. Suddenly, I saw myself rotating on a stool in front of me. _Settings_, I thought.  
The settings page seemed to be a multiple choice questionnaire on what I wanted to be. I set myself as a stable boy (well, I didn't want to be a maid!) and turned my hair short and brown. I also changed my name to Andy.

For the game, Andy was a stable boy who was currently working at an old man (who never ever goes outside)'s farm.  
When I thought _Next_, my vision changed and turned dull gray. I started getting all the rules and how to play.

Well, that's what I think happened. Suddenly I knew I needed to finish three tasks and defeat a dragon lord to win the game.

Then the game began.

The first thing I noticed was the smell.

No, wait. The first thing I noticed was something blunt poking me.

The second thing I noticed was the stink. I stuck my nose in my sleeve and my eyes snapped open.

Bright sunshine hit my face and I closed my eyes again as I got up from…what was this? Hay?

"Get up yonder!" yelled a young voice above me. Suddenly I felt a poke on my side. "Whachu doin' lad?" Another poke.

I opened my eyes again. A short young man stood with a broom in his hands. He had a dark brown beard and hair and looked like he was in his twenties.

He stared at me again and said, "Oh. The new stable boy yonder has gotten himself a wee bed with the horses now eh?"

I looked around. Sure enough, a row of horses greeted me, and I scrambled quickly on my feet.

"Can't speak eh? What's your name lad?'

"A-a-a-andy."

"A-a-a-andy? Never heard of that kinda name here in these parts of town."

"Andy. Mah name is Andy," I said as politely as possible, trying to get his accent. I didn't know who to trust yet, and this guy sure didn't look like someone I'd cross with.

"And my name is Ian yonder, lad," said the man.

"P-p-pleased to meet you sir, uh sir Ian yonder," I said.

"Gardener," Ian corrected. "and I am no sir. Just a gardener slavin' out here yonder these fields. Oh, and donchu yonder me Andy. Now follow me, I'm sure the master will have a fit on yonder sleepin' down with the horses. Of course maybe he'd think you just love 'em…"

I took in the fact that every chestnut colored horse (they were all chestnut colored horses) seemed to be staring at me, nickering softly, maybe even laughing. I patted one on the head and he, or she, I didn't know,

When Ian and I stepped outside of the barn, I was immediately blinded by the sun, which didn't help to the fact that something huge and hairy came bounding at me, knocking me over and slobbering my face with it's tongue.

"Ahhh!" I screamed as I flailed my arms wildly to gain my balance.

"Its just Zub, our sheepdog!" cried out Ian indignantly. "You really are new here aren't you?"

"Yeah," I said, trying to get Zub the sheepdog off me. Zub was a  
"Andy! Stable boy! Yonder, where have you been?" a voice cried out from my right.  
I looked up and saw a woman dressed as a maid (I guess she's a maid then…) and looked to my other side at Ian.

"Well, guess you're in trouble lad," he said, shaking his head. At my hesitation, he said, "You should follow her."

I did.

The woman's swish-swish of her dress started to become annoying when we reached the house. She pulled the door open and we went in, letting the door close softly behind us. Then the woman beckoned for me to follow, and she took me up the stairs and to a set of great oak doors. She knocked.

"Come in," rumbled a voice.

The woman eased the door open easily, contrary to what I thought due to her fragile looking hands. Then she nudged me inside and shut the door behind me. As I turned around to take a look at the voice that said "Come in", I noticed that I was in a very, very, _very_ large library.

The books were stacked neatly in hundreds of shelves that reached from the floor to the ceiling. A large chandelier with hundreds of small candles was hanging from the ceiling. I smelled a musty and stale smell, like one from a tomb. An old oak desk stood in the side of the

"Andy, my stable boy…" rumbled the same voice.

"Y-y-yes?" I stammered.

"You were found lying in the stable this morning, out of your bed," said The Voice.

I finally caught on where The Voice was coming from, and noticed a very old man sitting in a chair beyond the old oak desk, beyond several chairs, and beyond the whole row of scrolls in cases, fiddling with something that looked slightly like an incense stick.

"Here," said the old man. He reached down into one of his pockets and took out a piece of parchment. He held it out and froze.

"Umm, hello? Are you okay?" I asked. He didn't move. I waved my arms around and squawked like a chicken, which was what Giannine had told me to do if somebody seemed to have frozen, but the old man still didn't move.

Cautiously, I crept up towards him, taking slow, deliberate steps. I took the parchment from his hand and read:

**Dakota Wang:**

**We are so extremely sorry, but a customer of ours has tripped over one of your wires that was connected to your brain. It has been ripped off, and your virtual reality machine has started to malfunction. We cannot reattach the wire for fear that your brain will be damaged permanently. Please finish the game as soon as possible before time runs out. When it does, we don't know what will happen to you.**

**We are terribly sorry for this accident. Your parents have been notified.**

**Rasmussem Gaming Center Staff**

Just my luck. Just like Giannine. Then the full meaning set into me. What if I don't finish the game on time? Then…I might die, lose my memory, or have some kind of brain damage.

Suddenly, the old man started to talk to me again, as if nothing had happened, as if he had never frozen.

"I have decided I have no use for a stable boy that doesn't do his work and live with the rest of us, so I have arranged for you to be deported at once to the Castle of Notersville to work there for their knights. You will be a stable boy there."

"Yes," I said. I guess this was part of the game.

"There will be an escort to the castle today in a few hours."

"Yes," I said again.

"Yes _sir,_" said the old man.

I never figured out what his name was.

The ride to the Castle of Notersville was very uneventful. A few soldiers and a coach with a horse came and told me to get in, then pretty much shoved me into my seat and slammed the door shut. Thus started the most bumpy and boring ride I've ever taken in my entire life.

About two hours later, we finally got to the castle. As I stepped out, I gasped at the magnificent stone architecture and all of the hard work put into it.

Oh, and did I ever say that soldiers seem to love shoving people around?

This is what happened after: a soldier shoved me out of the coach, shoved me to the castle, and pushed (in other words, shoved) me to the head knight's room, where he was eating juicy grapes and spitting seeds at a bullseye.

"Lord Verdandas, this is our new stable boy, Andy," sneered the soldier who shoved me all the way through the castle.

I could hear laughter and muttering of the other soldiers. "What kind of name is Andy?" asked Lord Verdandas, spitting yet another seed.

I was lost for words. Well, what was I supposed to say? That Lord Verdandas was actually from a game? That my real name was Dakota and he could call me Ko for short, and that I really prefer my real name to Andy?

"Well," I blurted.

"Silence!" yelled the Lord. "Go give him a task," he directed at another knight.

My first task probably. I hope. My first of three, which I need in order to get free of this machine that my mind is locked into.

I couldn't wait.

The soldier leered at me, and said to me, "Well, what do we want, eh, fellas?" he grinned at his comrades.

Uh oh. I was supposed to get something for these four burly men?  
If I didn't, they would probably kill me. If I died, I'd go all the way back to the end, and I don't know how long I've taken so far out of the two hours to get here.

"Nevermind," said the soldier. I sighed. Thank goodness. "Let's get this little lad yonder to go get us the ghosts of the Black Catacombs!"

The men cheered and gave me a horse, provisions, and a map.

"Let's see if you can do this."

I didn't think I could.

I followed the map and reached the catacombs in two days. It was dark, and I could see why the catacombs were called the Black Catacombs. It was because when you stepped inside, the door to the outside shuts with a loud CLANG, and you're left in a pitch black tomb.

Maybe that's why there's so many dead people here.

Maybe I could've been smarter, to bring a light with me. I sat until I died of starvation.

When I came to, Ian was poking me again. _Not again_, I thought. Well, I could just follow my footsteps, which is what I did. Until I got to the catacombs. I brought in provisions and a torch, with spare lighter sticks that the soldiers had given me.

When I went in, I had a light.

"Hey ghosts?" I called.

Oops; wrong call.

"Eh, is anyone here?" I called again.

A sudden whooshing noise came up from behind me, and I turned around.

Nothing.

A swish-swish sound erupted from over my head, but when I looked up, I didn't see anything, either.

Then I realized that ghosts wouldn't be visible when my light was on. But… that meant putting me back into the dark. However, I had to finish my task, so I put out my light. Suddenly, I could see a chamber of ghosts filling in, all staring at me.

"A live lad…" one whispered.

"Feel him…" said another.

"I can't; my hands go through him!" gasped a child ghost.

"Silence-" roared a deep voice.

I turned to face the speaker.

"Why have you come here?" said the speaker, an old man clad with a shining robe of ghostly silver.

"My new master wishes for your presence."

"Haha!" screeched the ghosts. "No one wishes for our presence!"

I could see why I was the one who was chosen to bring these ghosts to the Castle of Notersville. No one else would do it.

"We will hold a meeting to see if we should fulfill your request," said the head ghost. Or at least I thought he was the head ghost. It wouldn't make much of a difference now, anyway. My life was at stake, and I needed to finish the three tasks before I can get out of here.

"All in favor say 'Aye'," the head ghost was saying. He raised a stick that looked kind of like a gavel, while the rest of the ghost population said, "AYE."

My first task was fulfilled. The ghosts were going to come back to the castle with me. I think.

And apparently, I was right.

The ghosts followed me out of the catacombs and I could no longer see them. However, my horse could feel them quite well and started to bray in distress.

"Calm down," I said as I petted his neck and gave him some food.

Then, turning to the ghosts, I yelled, "Follow me!"

Mounting my horse, I kicked him forward and we surged back to the castle.

"It's cold here suddenly," said Lord Verdandas when I returned.  
"Yes, milord," I replied. "The ghosts of the Black Catacombs are here."

The look on his face was registered as shock. "What!" he exclaimed. "What fool brought them here?"

All eyes revolved onto me.

"Ungrateful stable boy," muttered the stocky lord.

As punishment, I would have to clean out all of the stables by nightfall.

That was pretty much impossible, except for the fact that this was a virtual reality game and I could probably do anything here. Except I might die from it, so… I wasn't going to take any chances.

By dinnertime, I managed to finish _that_ stinky task, with the help of the old mythology stories of Heracles and all. I dug a trench and had the river water go cascading down into the stable, seeping into all of the cracks and getting all of the muck and stuff out.

"Well done," said the stable master when I finished.

"Now we have another task for you."

The excitement on my face must have shown, because one of the knights behind the stable master (the original ones who wanted the Black Catacomb ghosts here) grinned maliciously and said, "I want to hear a poem. If you don't give me a good poem…" He made a slashing movement in the air with his sword, which he seems to have just cleaned and sharpened.

I gulped.

Was this a task or just a side problem I had to face? Well, whatever it was, I needed to finish it to go on.

"Ahrm…" I said nervously, then stopped making noise for the soldier growled, "Are you ready?"

"N-n-no," I answered, shaking with fright.

The soldier growled again.

"And you must make it up," he added.  
A chill went down my spine. That meant I couldn't use Robert Frost's great poems to tell the soldiers and confuse them. Rasmussem probably already programmed many poems in.

"Um," I said. Then my face brightened.

"Roses are red,

I love kung fu,

Sugar is sweet,

But not bamboo."

I glanced nervously at the soldier, wondering whether he'd accept my parody of the Valentine's Day poem.

"I love poetry," the soldier leered at me, and then thought about the poem for a few minutes. Then he grinned his nasty grin, complete this time with yellowed teeth.

"Let's hear another one," he said. "How about a _longer_ poem?"

I gulped.

"Uh, okay. Can I have a minute to think?" I asked.

Silence.

"Minute's up," sneered the soldier again.

Oh. I didn't mean it that literally.

"Okay," I said and recited from memory a poem a friend of mine had shown me.

"Trashing, sea, against the sand ahead.

Violent, sea, throws ships around.

Thriving, sea, so full of life,

Open, sea no land in sight.

Silent, sea, so quiet underwater."

I waited for the worst.

Then his next words cut into my thoughts.

"We will give you a big task now, lad."

Another task! Yes, another chance to be another step towards freedom from this awful place. I was starting to abhor the smell and all the yonders and lads.

"Bring back five werewolf tails."

My jaw dropped.

That would mean killing five werewolves.

"Whatchu waiting for lad? Get to work! We need five tails by tomorrow night for the king who is coming to talk to Lord Verdandas."

Well, I wanted to get out, so this time frame was good enough for me.

After going to the armory and getting suitable armor for myself, I went to the weaponry to get a knife and a crossbow, along with some arrows.

Then I set off.

After dark, I went to the clearing in a field a few miles away from the castle. This was where the werewolves would be, somebody had told me.

They'd better have been right.

I sat in the darkness for about half an hour before I could hear a snarling noise to my left. I cautiously took up my crossbow and aimed at the noise.

_WHACK._

My arrow hit its target.

I heard a whimper, then a soft thud as a werewolf fell. Or it might have been a regular wolf, except there weren't any regular wolves here, just werewolves. That's what the weaponry guy said.

_TWACK_.

I hit another werewolf.

Suddenly from the darkness, I heard a large screech and I feel a fizziness take over.

I had died again.

I felt a poke in my side, and knew I was once again inside the stable and Ian was poking me.

Retracing my steps, I went back to the clearing where the wolves were and finally killed enough to make Lord Verdandas happy for the king. By the time I got back, everyone was making preparations for the king.

"Find the fattest pig and roast it!"

"Hurry, we need fresh water! Hey yonder…"

"Lazy lad! Go do something useful!"

Once I got back to talk to Lord Verdandas, I gave him the tails. He gaped at them. "I didn't know you'd be getting them this quickly," he exclaimed.

Quickly, yeah sure. After I died a few times.

The next day, trumpets blared and banners were raised to honor the king, his knights, and personal helpers. There was an archery and jousting tournament, which the king himself took part of. He didn't do that great in jousting, but beat all of the young men in archery.

Then we had dinner. We were served roasted pig (remember the people yesterday when they were running around trying to catch a fat pig?), along with a lot of other kinds of foods that I am not quite sure was. However, it was pretty good! Dinner was excellent until the king spoke of his problems.

"We have trouble with a dragon," said the king at dinner.

"Oh," replied Lord Verdandas, lost for words.

"We need to destroy the dragon that's haunting and demolishing our town which is in fact next to Noterzzville," the king continued.

"Notersville," corrected the lord of the castle.

"Yessum well its going to be Noterzzbille to me," said the king, again murdering the name of the castle and its surroundings. "I will offer a reward of 50 gold pieces to the first to kill the dragon. Please send your best men to defeat it."

Lord Verdandas' lips curled into a sinister smile. I knew what he was thinking. Except I didn't know how I knew what he was thinking. He was going to send his worst people first. "Yonder stable boy!"

I turned and bowed to Lord Verdandas.

"You will be our first contestant to kill the dragon."

_Contestant? Was I thinking correctly? Of course I was. I was the newcomer to his castle, of course he wanted me to do it, not one of his veterans._

The king continued. "Now you must listen carefully…"

After two grueling hours of listening to the king, which I learned his name was Sebastian, I was prepared, or so I thought to defeat the Dragon Lord.

After another hour of preparation, I crept to the dragon's layer. It was sleeping, its black scales and heavy armor and all. It had gray leathery wings and a band of gold circled around its tail.

I knew dragons love gold, so I brought along a golden horn from the golden mage to tease the dragon forward out from its lair. There was no way I was going to go in without knowing where the dragon was.

I threw the golden horn outside of the lair, which was probably a mistake.

Oops.

Suddenly, a flock of dragons seeped out from the lair opening and killed me. It was so quick, I didn't even know it until…

I felt a fizziness come over me as I died.

When I came to, Ian was poking me on the side again.

When everything happened again (I will spare you the dismay of reading what you've just read all over again, which includes dying again while trying to kill the werewolves)

I killed a few dragons and wounded the Dragon Lord, as King Sebastian told me to.

When I had the dragon at sword point, he considered yielding, but decided it was 'undragonly'. However, he rumbled in his great voice, "Who enters my domain?"

I told the Dragon Lord I had not set foot in his lair yet, and so I have not yet entered his domain.

He gave a large bellow of a laugh.

"Hah, hah, hah, the yonder little lad has decided to play smart heh? Hah, hah, hah…"

Then I did something that I finally got my courage up to do. I did King Sebastian's bidding and told the Dragon Lord to go away and never terrorize the towns again.

He thought about that. He thought for a few minutes. Then he laughed. Fearing the worst, I gripped my crossbow until my knuckles turned white.

"You are too strong, young apprentice lad," the Dragon Lord said with a hint of pleasure airing around him. "I will no longer terrorize the kingdom again with my dragon friends. I will also grant you one wish. What would you like? Gold? Anything you want. Magic powers to possess?"

I was very tempted to get magic powers, but maybe this was the end of the game.

"I want to go home."

"Done," said the Dragon Lord as he flicked his staff and muttered an incantation. His now golden dragons came back to life, screeching in the sun. Then they flapped their wings and took flight back to their solitary home.

My mind burst into fireworks and suddenly turned dark.

"Dakota, Dakota, can you hear me?"

I opened my eyes, this time to the Rasmussem Gaming Center. The woman who put me into the virtual reality game was leaning over me, her anxious face lined with worried creases. A young man who looked like he was in his early twenties was also near me, massaging my hand and getting my blood circulation going again.

"I'm okay," I said groggily.

The woman and the man, who looked very familiar, glanced at each other and closed their eyes, looking as if they were saying a short thank you to somebody.  
"Thank goodness you're all right," breathed the man. "Oh, and by the way, my name is Nigel Rasmussem, creator of the Rasmussem Gaming Centers."

I decided to play it like Giannine.

"You came here because I was in trouble?"

"Well, I happened to be in town. Wait, do you know Miss Bellisario? Your response to knowing my name is very similar," he winked.

"Yeah, she's in almost all of my classes," I answered. "What happened to me, anyway?"

"While you were playing, one of our younger customers wandered a little to close to your machine, even though we told him to stay at least five feet away from all of the machines. He accidentally tripped on one of your wires, which was not tucked in away correctly, and pulled one of your sensors out. That triggered a malfunction in your machine that may have resulted in a fatality."

Of course, that fatality meant me dying. The day after I turn 16. I looked at Nigel again and gasped.

"Lord Verdandas?"

"Yes, indeed," replied Nigel. "I use my character form for some of the games. For example, my form from two years ago was seen by your friend Miss Bellisario when she played Heir Apparent. I was Prince Kendric. Of course, I'm sure she's already told you all of the details."

She had.

"Well, because of this, er, mental and probably emotional experience, I'd like to refund your gift certificate," the founder of the gaming center ran his hand through his dark hair.

"Sure. I'll probably be back tomorrow," I winked.

"Glad to hear that."

So what happened after that? My face to plastered to the local news and the Citizens to Protect Our Children mod struck again outside of the Rasmussem Gaming Center to go against teens and minors playing the virtual reality games. Of course, the center is still a big hit and everyone still goes there.

As for me, I took Giannine out to play a multiplayer game at the gaming center the next day. We played Heir Expectant, the sequel game to Heir Apparent.

Two weeks later, she asked me whether I'd like to go to homecoming with her in September.

With so much in common, how could I refuse?

THE END!

**A/N: Okay guys! I know you just absolutely loved the story! Now what can I do better? What other mini tasks besides cleaning the stable and reciting poetry should I have? Hmmm…………. ANYWAY, NOW GO REVIEW! You know you wanna click the button down there….!**


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